With hungry bears rising early, Tahoe area residents
put on alert

"They feel the warmth and come out of their dens, but there's no natural food for them yet," said Ann Bryant, executive director of the BEAR League, a Tahoe-area group that educates residents on coexisting with bears.

"The grasses, herbs and roots they like are still covered with snow, and there will be more storms," she said. "So they're looking for garbage, pet food and bird food – those are the biggest lures – and empty cabins with food in them."

The bears' early rising is not an anomaly during a warm spring, Bryant said.

"For a good 10 years, they've been getting up a little earlier each year," she said. "We used to have more snow and more cold, so it used to be the end of March or later, but then it was the middle of March and now it starts about the first."